title: In vitro cell culture models to study the corneal drug absorption.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Many diseases of the anterior eye segment are treated using topically applied ophthalmic drugs. For these drugs, the cornea is the main barrier to reaching the interior of the eye. In vitro studies regarding transcorneal drug absorption are commonly performed using excised corneas from experimental animals. Due to several disadvantages and limitations of these animal experiments, establishing corneal cell culture models has been attempted as an alternative.
  
  
  METHODS
  This review summarizes the development of in vitro models based on corneal cell cultures for permeation studies during the last 20 years, starting with simple epithelial models and moving toward complex organotypical 3D corneal equivalents.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Current human 3D corneal cell culture models have the potential to replace excised animal corneas in drug absorption studies. However, for widespread use, the contemporary validation of existent systems is required.
authors.affiliation: Technische Universita¨t Braunschweig, Institut fu¨r Pharmazeutische Technologie, Braunschweig, Germany. S.Reichl@tu-bs.de
authors.forename: Stephan
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Reichl
authors.forename: Christian
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Kölln
authors.forename: Matthias
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Hahne
authors.forename: Jessica
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Verstraelen
mesh_terms: D000287:Administration, Topical; D000826:Animal Testing Alternatives; D000818:Animals; D018929:Cell Culture Techniques; D003315:Cornea / Q000378:metabolism*; D019573:Epithelium, Corneal / Q000378:metabolism; D005128:Eye Diseases / Q000188:drug therapy; D006801:Humans; D008954:Models, Biological; D010539:Permeability; D004364:Pharmaceutical Preparations / Q000008:administration & dosage* / Q000378:metabolism
chemical_list: D004364:Pharmaceutical Preparations